Connecticut poker player bags Main Event title for second gold ring.
Atlantic City, N.J. (March 19, 2018) -- Soheb Porbandarwala ended up winning $107,862 and his second World Series of Poker gold ring after deciding to play the Harrah’s Atlantic City Circuit Main Event. The 27-year-old navigated through 306 entrants and three days of tournament poker in Event #10: $1,675 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event to claim the title.--
The Main Event began with two separate starting legs. Porbandarwala emerged from Flight B with a below-average stack. From there, he chipped up and eventually made it to the final three tables with nearly 200,00 in chips and securely in the money.
An extremely, out of the ordinary occurrence materialized later on, during Level 23, while the last ten players filled up an unofficial final table. Porbandarwala, who was simultaneously playing in WSOP.com’s online ring event, fumbled his words, leading to a showdown that knocked Joe Siracusa out in 10th place.
“I meant to say fold, and I said ‘all in,’” Porbandarwala plainly stated “I did go all in online. I mean, I was going all in there and I just subconsciously said ‘all in.’ I meant to declare fold because I didn’t have my hands on my cards.” He elaborated.
The strange elimination greatly benefited Porbandarwala, boosting him into the chip lead with only nine players remaining. Although it was quite the slip up, the light-hearted player took it as is and happily moved on.
“After that, I thought ‘I better win this.’ How do you not win after that,” Porbandarwala joked.
In the end, it was no speculation. Porbandarwala indeed went on to win, but not before going through a decisive final table.
“I thought it was nice,” Porbandarwala said, alluding to the quick play of everyone at the final table. “I tried to set the pace a little bit. I was trying to play super fast because… I think when you play a little faster it kind of throws people off.”
The wasted no time during final-table action and everyone agreed to keep playing even after the scheduled end of Day 2. Following two extra levels, the Main Event players were cut off and bagged up for the night. By that time, all that remained was Porbandarwala and three-time gold ring winner Peter Vitantonio.
“I wanted to play it out last night, but I’m glad we didn’t because it took so long, so it ended up being a good thing,” said Porbandarwala “Yeah, the heads up was very entertaining.”
Day 3 encompassed multiple double ups between the two players. Porbandarwala began with the chip lead. Vitantonio did swing the lead back his way for a time, but ultimately, Porbandarwala held on to scoop the final pot of the tournament, claiming his second career gold ring.
“I ran much better in this one,” Porbandarwala said with a laugh, comparing the two triumphs. “You know, that one was really exciting because it was my first ring and it was at Foxwoods [Porbandarwala’s hometown casino], so it was pretty cool to win one there.”
The family man from Connecticut more, or less, plays poker for a living, mainly online. He does enjoy a good tournament here and there though.
“I really don’t play tournaments that much. I play mostly cash online, but I love tournaments. It’s like my old love,” Porbandarwala said. “It’s really nice to win a Main Event because it’s getting to the Global Championship the short way.”
Porbandarwala will get another shot at some big money in early August. With his Main Event victory comes an automatic seat in the Global Casino Championship. The tournament of Circuit champions is being held at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina.